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Holocaust survivors tell their story to students By Nick Veronin
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t was standing room-only in Christopher Chiang’s world history class at Mountain View High School as Lenci Farkas recalled her horrific ordeal. The teens listened in silence as the nonegenarian woman told of how she was taken from her home in 1944, shipped first to a Jewish ghetto and then by train “in cars for cattle” off to
the infamous Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Some snacked on potato chips or sandwiches as she described trading with fellow concentration camp prisoners — a few scraps of linen from the camp’s blanket factory for a small lump of stale bread. It seemed uncomfortably hot at times, even as she recalled huddling together for warmth with other children in an abandoned rural house after
escaping from one of the many “death marches” the Nazis forced her people to participate in. Farkas, a San Mateo resident, has been telling her story of death, fear and survival to children and teens for more than 30 years. Her intent is to raise awareness among students and show them what small prejudices can turn into if they are not See HOLOCAUST, page 11
Hospital could lose taxing power COMMISSION’S AUDITORS CRITICAL OF DISTRICT’S BOOKKEEPING By Nick Veronin
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or the second time in less than a year, a governmental watchdog agency has delivered a severe critique of El Camino Hospital — but this time, the future of the tax-collecting special hospital district hangs in the balance. The Local Agency Formation Commission of Santa Clara County (LAFCo) found the hospital and hospital district lacking in transparency, unaccountable to its constituents and in need of serious reform in its audit. The lengthy report was released May 23, about one year after the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury’s report identified similar deficiencies at El Camino. A great deal is at stake. Unlike the Civil Grand Jury, which can draw public attention and make recommendations, LAFCo has
the authority to initiate the dissolution of the hospital district. And, if the district is unable to make its operations more transparent, that is exactly what the agency will move to do, a LAFCo official said. In a hospital press release, El Camino district officials said that they “strongly disagree” with some of the report’s recommendations, as they “would limit how the district provides its health care services.” Audit’s origin Officials at LAFCo had not initially intended to conduct such an intense investigation of the hospital corporation and hospital district — they had only planned on performing a standard fiveyear service review. However, in light of the El Camino’s 2009 purchase of the former Los Gatos Community Hospital — which is
located outside of the El Camino Hospital District’s boundaries, and beyond what is referred to as the hospital district’s “sphere of influence” — the officials at LAFCo wanted to take a more in-depth view of the district. LAFCo officials hired a public sector management consulting firm to audit the hospital and special district, according to Neelima Palacherla, the commission’s executive director. Once Harvey M. Rose Associates started digging, they discovered that the health care organization had changed extensively since its founding in 1956 and was not necessarily operating the way that its founders intended. Transparency needed Over the past several years, while El Camino has shone as a beacon of technological achievement in the healthcare industry,
MICHELLE LE
Holocaust survivors Livia Grunfeld, left, and Lenci Farkas talk to students and teachers at Mountain View High School.
the organization has struggled we’ve provided some recomthrough a series of public rela- mendations of how this could be tions battles related to financial a more open process — easier to woes and disagreements between understand and more clear.” the hospital’s workers and its Because of the complex relaadministrators. As local sur- tionship between El Camino geons have championed adopt- Hospital District and El Camino ing the latest procedures, nurses Hospital — wherein the district have shouted in collects taxboard meetings payer money over fears of losing and channels ‘‘These are their jobs. And as it through its on-site researchprivate corpopublic funds. ers have worked ration counterIt is the public’s part — transtoward the next generation of lifeparency and saving medical right to know how accountability devices, a CEO was paramount, these funds are are dismissed — sudPalacherla said. denly and without “These are being used.’ explanation — in public funds,” spite of managing Palacherla said to pilot the hospital from red to of the roughly $16 million the black ink. hospital district collected from A common theme in recent taxpayers during the 2009-10 fisyears among those who have cal year. “It is the public’s right to spoken out against the hospital is know how these funds are being a perceived lack of transparency. used.” “I think there are some con“It’s not clear what’s being done cerns about the transparency and with the public funds,” she said. accountability of the district,” Palacherla said. “In the report See HOSPITAL, page 9
EPA finds toxic vapors in NASA building CHEMICAL TCE IS EXPOSING WORKERS TO DANGEROUS FUMES By Daniel DeBolt
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DANIEL DEBOLT
The EPA found a high level of toxic fumes in this building at Moffett Field.
building occupied by facilities workers at NASA Ames Research Center has 10 times the limit of toxic vapors coming from an underground plume, according to recent tests by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Short-term exposure at that level, particularly for pregnant women, would be an issue,” said Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Envi-
ronmental Oversight. “Birth defects are caused by short-term exposure.” The reading was taken over a large toxic plume flowing under northeastern Mountain View and Moffett Field. Fairchild, Intel and the United States Navy were among those who used the industrial solvent Trichloroethylene and either dumped it on the ground or leaked it from storage tanks over the years. Known as Building 10, the
former Navy structure appears to have been built in the 1930s and houses a massive boiler used to heat nearby buildings and a locker room for workers. While the plume has been undergoing cleanup for more than a decade, tests have only recently begun of the air inside some of Moffett’s buildings. Siegel said the delay was caused by a dispute between the Navy See TCE, page 13
June 1, 2012 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
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